Article 1 of the Convention defines slavery as: “the status or condition of a person over whom any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised.” It defines the slave trade as: “The slave trade includes all acts involved in the capture, acquisition or disposal of a person with intent to reduce him to slavery; all acts involved in the acquisition of a slave with a view to selling or exchanging him; all acts of disposal by sale or exchange of a slave acquired with a view to being sold or exchanged, and, in general, every act of trade or transport in slaves.”
The convention requires signatories to intercept slave traffic in their territorial waters and on ships flying their flag, to assist other states in anti-slavery efforts, and to enact national anti-slavery laws and enforcement mechanisms. Article 2 requires the parties to agree to prevent and suppress the slave trade and to progressively bring about the complete elimination of slavery in all its forms. Article 5 requires the parties to promulgate severe penalties for slave trading, slaveholding, and enslavement.
Article 9 of the convention allows each signatory to exempt certain of its territories from all or parts of the convention. It states: “at the time of signature or of ratification or of accession, any High Contracting Party may declare that its acceptance of the present Convention does not bind some or all of the territories placed under its sovereignty, jurisdiction, protection, suzerainty or tutelage in respect of all or any provisions of the Convention; it may subsequently accede separately on behalf of any one of them or in respect of any provision to which any one of them is not a Party.” (http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/ProfessionalInterest/slavery.pdf)